Ohio man charged with bombing woman’s boyfriend who rejected romantic interest

An Ohio man, who played live role-playing game Dagorhir, delivered a homemade bomb to seriously injure the boyfriend of a woman who rejected her romantic interest, authorities said Thursday.

Clayton Alexander McCoy, 30, a resident of Chesterland, has been arrested and charged with transporting an explosive device with the intent to injure and use a destructive device in a violent crime, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The victim was seriously injured after opening a parcel bomb inside his Manchester, Maryland home on October 30, authorities said.

A shrapnel hit his “chest, legs and the front of (his) body” and the victim was not released from the hospital until November 17, although he is still in rehab. , wrote the special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the complaint.

The victim’s girlfriend “has known McCoy for about seven years, since McCoy joined the Dagorhir community,” according to Machon.

Dagorhir is a live role-playing combat game featuring full-contact melee combat between players wearing medieval-style clothing and weapons made of foam or other light, harmless material.

Carroll County, Maryland, Sheriff Jim DeWees compared Dagorhir to Civil War reenactments.

McCoy and the victim’s girlfriend were close and even planning a camping trip together, according to the complaint. But around October 12, McCoy told her “he had feelings for her” but that she “didn’t feel the same way and was in a relationship” with the victim, Machon wrote.

Following the blast, the girlfriend told investigators that McCoy, “like most members of the Dagorhir, is proficient in wood and metal and may have the ability to create the device that exploded,” according to the complaint.

The victim had also known the suspect through Dagorhir but “did not believe that McCoy would be responsible for this incident,” Machon wrote.

Data from Google and Verizon has linked McCoy-owned mobile devices to a nearly seven-hour trip that began in Chesterland at 1:24 a.m. and ended in Manchester on October 30, federal investigators said.

McCoy’s devices entered the victim’s neighborhood at around 8:18 a.m. that morning, just before the victim’s grandfather spotted the package addressed to his grandson outside their home at 8:30 a.m., federal authorities said. .

Records also showed that accounts linked to McCoy were using Google Maps to request directions from his home in Ohio to the victim’s address in Maryland, about 360 miles away, according to the complaint.

“We felt very early on we thought the device hadn’t been delivered by UPS, FedEx or a traditional party,” Sheriff DeWees told reporters Thursday. “But based on what we learned from the package, it probably must have been dropped off by a third party, delicately, or by the individual looking to harm.”

The timing of the bombing, just before the holidays, was particularly puzzling, officials said.

“It was Christmas time and the fear that packages would appear on porches and explode,” had worried neighbors, DeWees said. “The family and community there are extremely relieved that we have come to this conclusion and to an arrest.”

In a brief virtual hearing before a federal judge in Youngstown, Ohio on Thursday, McCoy did not dispute his identity as the man named in the criminal complaint, paving the way for his transport to Maryland, according to files. judicial.

McCoy’s federal public defender declined to discuss the case on Friday, and family members of the suspect did not immediately return messages seeking their comment.